Mobility

How the mobillity infrasturcture in London

You might know already the population of the London boroughs, *todo something about population but how is the mobility insfrastructure for each of them? How has the usage changed??

Cycle

London counts with The London Cycle Network Plus (LCN+) a network of cycle routes of about 900 kilometres. Below is the map of the cyclable paths:

todo improve plot of cycle routes

Beside the private owned bikes, London counts with a public cycle scheme with more than 11,500 bikes and 750 docking stations. However the distribution of this docking station is quite uneven.

As seen above, the most centric boroughs have the majority of the docking stations. todo link to density plot, talk about the density population in those boroughs

If we take a look into the usage of this public bikes, overall there is an increase on the cycle hires on summer and spring, something to be expected if we keep in mind the weather. However, since covid started, the increase is way more noticeable specially whenever the mobility restrictions are lifted. todo link to mobility restrictions

Public transport

As we can see, not all boroughs have the same number of bus stops.

todo improve plot of bus stops

As we can see, not all boroughs have the same number of tfl stops (includes Tube, DLR, Overground, Tramlink, Emirates Air Line and Crossrail stations)

todo improve plot of bus stops

Differences between restriction obidience between the first and the second lockdown

When people were initially forced to stay at home and reduce the amount of time they spend among other people, most took it very seriously and avoided going out of their homes at all costs. The public opinion about what is acceptable or safe to do, has been gradually getting broader during the pandemic, whether this change comes from better understanding of COVID-19, or the fact that the population is losing it’s patience with the lockdowns, we’ll leave this up for the reader.

We have picked the start date of the first lockdown, to be 24/03/2020, when the majority of the restrictions were put into place, similarly, we have decided on 05/11/2020 as the start of the second lockdown. We have taken the mobility data available for the week after the introduction of a restrictions and averaged them. With this we are able to visualize the change in people’s tendency, to follow restrictions related to movement.

Areas of negative change

As we have foreshadowed above, people seem to care less about the restrictions as we move forward in time, changes in Grocery and Pharmacy, Retail and Recreation, Transit Stations and Workplaces, show a significant drop, from the baseline, both in the first and second lockdown.

Mobility trends for places like grocery markets, food warehouses, farmers markets, specialty food shops, drug stores, and pharmacies.

Mobility trends for places like restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, theme parks, museums, libraries, and movie theaters.

Mobility trends for places like public transport hubs such as subway, bus, and train stations.

Mobility trends for places of work.

Areas of psoitive change

Unsurprisingly Residential movement has increased during both lockdowns, since if people want to meet up, their only option is someone’s home or some public area.

Mobility trends for places of residence.

Speaking of, Parks have seen a mild increase during the first lockdown, but has skyrocketed during the second lockdown. The reason? People initially didn’t know how contagious COVID-19 was in an outdoors setting, but the public opinion has shifted in this regard. What is also interesting to note is that, Parks have seen a significant increase during the second lockdown, but keep in mind that this was in November.

Mobility trends for places like local parks, national parks, public beaches, marinas, dog parks, plazas, and public gardens.

How it is now